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Retirees who have begun collecting benefits, as well as current employees entitled to production benefits, will continue to receive theirs without any change to their respective programs.

Apart from the pension freeze, GE said about 100,000 former employees who have yet to collect their monthly pension from the company may be entitled to a limited-time offer of their retirement benefits being paid out in a lump sum.

GE will also pre-fund approximately $4bn to $5bn of its estimated minimum ERISA funding requirements for 2021 and 2022, the company said in a statement.

CEO Larry Culp said debt remains one of the biggest challenges to GE’s effort to turn around the business. He is hoping to cut the company’s debt-to-earnings ratio to 2.5 times at the close of 2020, Bloomberg reported.